Kalangi Rodrigo

‘Are you tough enough?': Rethinking the safety, culture and care of archaeologists in the field « Archaeology# « Cambridge Core Blog From the old ‘Cowboys of Science' adage to swashbuckling fictional characters like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, the perception that fieldwork, and archaeology generally, is a job for tough people pervades both the discipline and public perception. As a...

What does it mean to be “tough enough” in #archaeology? A new blog and research article (out now #openaccess in @saa-aap.bsky.social) reconsider previous ideas around physical and emotional resilience and calls for a healthier, safer field culture.

🔗 https://cup.org/4ae3k3L

When there's world peace or peace of mind, then, there's always a dog 🙏🏻😭🐕‍🦺

My angel crossed the rainbow bridge when I needed her the most 😭

I'm delighted to have contributed even in a small way to this just-published article in @frontiersin.bsky.social describing a comparative bone surface modification database - with open-source data and code! frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2026.1681814/full

Job alert in Malta on my ERC funded IslandLab Project for a post excavation research assistant. A bachalor's degree in Archaeology, or related fields is required, ideally with experience working on faunal assemblages and handling bones/fossils, and curating finds.
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...

We are delighted to launch two scholarships for 2026/2027:

🔹School of Archaeology Graduate Scholarship

🔹The Kay Mahon Bursaries

Scholarships are open to EU and international students applying for on-campus MSc programmes. Closing 31 May 2026.

Grad Studies information: www.ucd.ie/archaeology/...

Life reconstuction of Foskeia pelendonum. Credit: Martina Charnell

Foskeia pelendonum is a newly discovered dinosaur species from the Early Cretaceous (120 million years ago). This chicken-sized herbivore has unique cranial and dental morphology that changes the current understanding of ornithischian phylogeny! 🧪

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Gates Cambridge: Impact in Archaeology - Gates Cambridge Gates Cambridge Scholars have been doing outstanding work to shed light on our early history, from climate change to ancient snakes.

Great write up by @gatescambridge.bsky.social about their impact on archaeology. T shirt on cover photo, courtesy of Gates astrophysics professor @luiswel.bsky.social, reads “if at first you don’t succeed, dig another test pit”

Brian Villmoare | Origins of Homo, African Fieldwork, and Cranial Evolution YouTube video by Our Primate Past

From the origins of Homo to fossil fieldwork in Africa, Dr Brian Villmoare explains how new discoveries are reshaping human evolution. Plus: where H. naledi and H. floresiensis fit in the hominin tree, best practices for fossil access, and whether Neanderthals and humans are the same species.

Good one 😂

Scientists find a new Neanderthal population that stayed completely isolated for 50,000 years Something like this would seem unimaginable for our Homo sapiens species.

Scientists find a new Neanderthal population that stayed completely isolated for 50,000 years

My photo shows a slightly ovoid-shaped tool knapped from yellow-tinged rock crystal. It is mounted for display against a grey background. Described as a scraper (racloir) by the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, it measures 6 x 3.3 x 1.5 cm. It was recovered from a Mousterian (Neanderthal) level in the Abri Des Merveilles rockshelter in France. The rock shelter was excavated by the American School of Prehistoric Research for a number of seasons from 1924 onwards, led by George Grant MacCurdy who documented that this rock crystal tool (and six others) were excavated from the lower level of the shelter together with a lithic assemblage (flint handaxes, scrapers and points) identified as Mousterian i.e. associated with Neanderthals. He suggested the original source of the rock crystal was some 90 miles north of the Merveilles rockshelter “near to and beyond the headwaters of the Vézère in the direction of Limousin and Puy-de-Dome” He suggested the rock crystal was either brought to the cave, or was carried away from its source by the river Vézère and then picked up from the riverbed by neanderthals. The info label at the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale reads: ‘Neanderthals were the first to show their interest in non-utilitarian objects: collection and transport of fossils and minerals, use of dyes such as ochre or haematite, choice of aesthetic raw materials for cut tools, such as rock crystal from Sergeac or opal jasper from Fontmaure’

Something beautiful for the weekend! ✨

A rare rock crystal tool made by Neanderthals between 200,000 - 40,000 years ago.

From a Mousterian level at the Merveilles rockshelter, Sergeac, Dordogne, France. 6 x 3.3 x 1.5 cm.

Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Step back and think about this…it’s INCREDIBLE

We can sequence DNA from an extinct species that’s been dead for thousands of years. Not only that, we can sequence DNA from another extinct species that first extinct species ate as its last meal…to learn about population dynamics of the extinct prey.

Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Chronological Analysis Developed by the NERC Radiocarbon Facility, this course is aimed at researchers using radiocarbon and other techniques, including Quaternary geologists, palaeobiologists, archaeologists and marine geo...

New Year's resolution to learn more about 14C? Our short course 16/03-18/03 covers project design to practical OxCal workshops. Registration closes 15/02. NERC/AHRC students come for free - please email. @isotopesuk.bsky.social @unioxarchaeology.bsky.social lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/shor...

in the pit

This entire weekend

Exciting line up for Michaelmas Term 2025!

Job Vacancies: Two Laboratory Technician posts on AHRC RICHeS project The UCL Institute of Archaeology currently has two vacancies for Laboratory Technicians on the AHRC-funded RICHeS project (Refs.: B03-02282 and B03-02283). The deadline for applications is 1 January 2...

Double Job Alert!! We are recruiting an archaeobotany technician and an osteology (human & zooarchaeology) technician to help curate and improve access to our collections. Come join us at the Institute for Archaeology, University College London

www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/...

Call for papers for SAFA2025 at @icarehb.bsky.social 21-26th July is now open!

We are accepting abstracts for our session: “Quantitative analysis of the African Middle Stone Age”

Information about submission can be found here: safa2025.icarehb.com/poster-and-o...

I’ve created a starter pack for #zooarchaeology and #biomolecular archaeology for all periods. Let me know if you want to be added go.bsky.app/Nv8XE4r 🦣🧪🏺🦴🦷

This is what an endangered wolf family looks like. Strong, resilient, loving 🐺

Not just a technique! An experimental approach to refine the definition of the bipolar anvil reduction in the Uluzzian - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences The bipolar technique has been widely used across a wide range of prehistoric contexts, from the Lower Pleistocene to the Metal Ages, and is a defining feature of the Uluzzian technocomplex, evident i...

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our joint paper on the Bipolar knapping! An experimental-based approach to define the Bipolar as a systematic method in the Uluzzian
@boneslab.bsky.social
link.springer.com/10.1007/s125...

A frosty and foggy morning in Oxford 🥶

📷 | Jmthalmann (X), Kshitijmohan.Oxford (Instagram), @greentempleton.bsky.social & Somerville College

Director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at University of Oxford Recruiting now: Director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

Job alert! Director of Oxford University Museum of Natural History: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKV017/d...